My first Iraqi Fish!

OK. As small as this fish looks it was a big thing to catch. For a few moments today I wasn't in Iraq. I was on the bank of a pond catching a fish. I might as well have been standing next to my dad as a kid with the way it felt. For that moment in time I may have been with my kids at a pond at home. My wife may have been sitting in a chair a few feet away reading a book. I was so close to home I could feel it with each and every tug on the end of the line. I got a fish that was a whopping 8 inches long, it might as wel have been a whale for as good as it made me feel. I may be thousands of miles from home, but in those few moments... I WAS home.

The Good, The bad, and the really ugly....

OK I am in Iraq for nt only christmas and New Years but in the middle of those two ia my birthday as well. There is the bad in a nut shell. The good. I got to see my kids open most of their christmas gifts, not a bad feat for thousands of miles away. I got to hear and SEE my kids sing happy Birthday too me. Yup I cried, I stopped as best as I could but I think MamaLang may have noticed. I got to enjoy the season as best as I can being where I am wth them being home. there is the good. The Ugly.. you say what can be uglier than being so far from home on the holidays??? I will tell you a brief story. My co workers bought me a birthday cake. It was cute really. They sang Happy Birthday to me (It was bed but not ugly). I cut the cake and started to serve it. I put a piece on my plate and noticed on the board the cake came off of looked like small dark spots. I looked at the bottom of the cake and asked what kind of cake it was. When one of my Soldiers that went and got the cake said it was yello wcake and not chocolate chip I put my piece right back onto the board it came off of and asked what the cakes expiration date was.....it was ready for this.....AUGUST 15th 2008!!! THis cake had been in Iraq longer than I HAVE!!! It was taken right back to the PX. I went with them to look for a different cake. We looked at all the cakes in the cooler. The freshest cake in there expired in October! None of the workers would take the cakes out and the manager was nowhere to be found! We left without a cake. I appreciated what my guys went through just getting a cake. It would have been nice to eat it but hey i am trying to lose weight anyway and really didn't need the empty calories.

That ladies and Gents is the Good nope great! the bad and the really really ugly of my Holiday season.

May you all have a Happy New Year. Spend it with someone you love orthink about the love one you wish you could be spending it with!

Christmas time this year

MamaLang did something huge and she just though she was doing something small to make me smile. She sent me christmas decorations!!! OK I am a Christmas decoration fanatic, I love to put them up and last year we even won a gift card for our decorations! I love Christmas and every thing about it. Except for the fact the idiots at Wally world had Christmas stuff up for sale in JUNE this year and it was NOT leftover stuff!!!!! I have been feeling a little detached about christmas this year for many reasons. Obviously one is that I am not at home with my family. Another is that in the messed up world where we have to be politically correct We have HOLIDAY parties, we have been told we have to say Happy Holidays not Merry Christmas. I am sorry but there are several different religious holiday's this time of year. Celebrate them if you believe in them and rejoice but dammit there is no X in Christmas! There is however Christ in Christmas he bongs there he is there for a reason stop trying to take him out...Judas took care of that a long long time ago. Up until yesterday I knew it was December, yup closer to my birthday, this year I get to celebrate it by taking an Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) Yeah just what I wanted.... There are no decorations around here, we can't have them might insult the islamic foks of Iraq. There is no christmas carols playing outside anywhere. It just does not feel like christmas. I have been a bit depressed over it and it was getting to me. Yesterday I am running around trying to learn my way and find someone and when I went to our company office I was told I had mail!!!!! I LOVE mail! It is a way to touch someone from home that you just can;' do over a phone or texting...Just need to teach ML to send some scented stuff too a paper maybe a small spray on the blanket she sent so it smells like she is in bed with me at night...I digress. I get back to my CHU ( that is what they call out trailer rooms) and open it up! I get a fleece blanket that I was really needing even though I didnt think I would (that woman just take such great care of me) and then there it was a MINI CHRISTMAS TREE!!!! with bells for ornaments and red ribbons and candy canes, and a min tree skirt and a wrapped present. Ok now it seems like christmas. I got some christmas music from a fellow soldier and played it while decorating my room. Next week I will put up the lights she sent when I buy a converter. I also got a full stocking the is on the wall (not looked in by the way) and a santa hat that I am damn sure going to try to wear on my way to work on the 25th. I also got an ornament in another package yesterday that is too big for my little tree but it is on the wall right next to it. I can;t up load many pics but I am at least up loading one of my tree. Thank you honey for my decorations they were exactly what I needed to cheer me up! I love you very much.

This year at church please let Monster or Boo hold a second candle during Silent Night, that way I cna at least be with you guys that way since I wont be there in person. I will miss looking at you while you hold the candle the light always reflect the gold tints in your eyes and you look at our kids with a look of pure love. There are little thing I miss about home, it just seems this time of year there are LOT more little things and big things to miss.

Well I am here

I have arrived. Take a look at my digs for the next year. It may look like a normal trailer, but it is only 1/3 of a normal trailer!!! I also have to share my section with one other person...

Deploying is expensive

I have heard about all the extra money we are supposed to make while deployed. I am wondering when that happens. This deployment so far has been very expensive. Every place we go there is something else that is needed because they don;t supply this here or that there. I will be happy when I am in my long term quarters and not moving around everywhere. I packed a large foot locker that was shipped and it wont be here till 3 weeks after I moved in. I packed extra clothes, creature comforts, extra soap, towels, sheets, blanket..all things I want but some I will NEED before it gets here. I can't get anyone from home to ship anything cause it would take just as long to get. There are some things I am going to have to buy. Once the box gets here I will have so many extras I am not sure what I am going to do with all of it! This is one of the lesser irritating things that have happened during this deployment. At least for me maybe not mamalang, but for me lesser irritating!

In a Different Desert...

OK I though that FT Bliss TX was a sand pit. I am now in Kuwait and honestly El Paso was a dusty sage brush desert cactus garden. This place has NOTHING but sand, check that, it has a kind of dust that is about the same consistency of talcum powder but the color of sand. I have gotten to see a heard of camels, that was cool since when I was in Egypt all I got to see was 2 or 3 of them and one all most ran me over! I will add pics of the camels later. I have made sure I got the kids christmas preseants cause even though I am not going to be there christmas morning does nto mean that something from me can't be! I got them ACU back packs for 2 and an ACU Boonie hat for one. I got their names on it in english and aribic. I think they will like them. I am adding pics of them here with this post.

Mamalang is supposed to be adding a link on here to Operation Happy Note (http://www.operationhappynote.com/)
They send musical instuments free to US military members that are deployed in combat zones no charge at all to the member! They have had thousands of instuments donated to them to send out but not quite enough for postage to send them out! Please if you read this and can help send them a few dollars. For everythign that they do and have done it is a great service they are doing for us deployed folks to get a little bit of home. They only need $35 to send out an instrument! They are a few months behnd sending out the instuments because of nothing more than needing postage. Please again give them a hand if you can!!!!!

I am going to finish up by saying that I have been married to MamaLang for 11 years, I love her more now than ever and the time we have been apart has shown me more ways in which I want, need rely on her in every thing that I do. I tell people that she is my better half, I think that is a very true statement. She is definitly the better of us and she is definitly part of me, a part I miss very very much. I Love You Honey!

Not nearly enough time...

I am currently home on pass visiting my wonderful wife and children. I did not realize how much I would miss them. I am on my second day of a 4 day pass. I am no where near ready to go back. I know how long it will be until I see them again. My wife does an unbelievable job being both parents when I am gone "playing Army" as we tell the kids. I know she is a strong woman that does not need any help, but I love to be there for her. It hurts when I am not there, it especially hurts when I can hear or see how much life id getting to her and I can't be there. She understands why I must go and supports me to go, but she isn't happy about it. I don't blame her but I very much appreciate her support. I probably don't tell her that enough, what husband really does? I love her more than I could ever express with words but I probably don't tell her that enough either. I have looked forward so much to coming to see her and the kids I have so much needed this visit and enjoyed it. That it is going to hurt to leave more this time than it did when I left last time. I know I am going to miss Thanksgiving, Monsters birthday, Christmas, New years, Valentines day with them. I will see them again hopefully for spring break. It is up to the Army if that happens but I will love them with all my heart no mater what happens.